Many military units can provide families with a Flat Daddy or Flat Mommy - life-size cardboard cutout of their overseas warrior. The family can then take that figure to parties, put it in the passenger seat of their car, take it to bed or do whatever it is that families want to with a replica of their loved one.

Intrigue last night surrounded a leaked French intelligence report that Osama bin Laden had died of typhoid. The news spread rapidly around the globe, prompting a flurry of investigations by officials in Paris, Washington, London and Islamabad.